How to Make Tennis Club Marketing Effective in 2021?

Are tennis players able to find you online? Whether it is a tennis club with multiple programs or a coach doing only a few lessons per week, growing a tennis business is always challenging. As a passionate tennis coach, the determination to get more players can drive you crazy. So how can we effectively do tennis club marketing? 

With the Covid-19 pandemic and fewer people attending events, traditional business marketing is long gone. In 2021 making your tennis club visible online is what can skyrocket its growth. Keep reading to dive in and learn how to do this effectively.

Why are tennis club marketing and business growth difficult?

Tennis club marketing takes some time and practice to get a hold of things. It is a bit like a seed sown in the hope of a giant tree. Many tennis clubs struggle to get an online presence, while others struggle to grow even after doing a lot of marketing. Mainly the reasons for such outcomes include:

• Tennis coaches direct their marketing without creative strategies
• Using old techniques that do not work anymore
• Unable to target and reach potential targets

To effectively manage the tennis club marketing with a growth vision, we must address the below important aspects of marketing.

Your novel brand identity

Building a successful tennis business in 2021 includes increasing your online presence. In other words, when a tennis player goes online and searches for "tennis program near me" or "tennis lessons in " they should be able to see your business in the search results.

For establishing an online presence, one crucial aspect is to develop your tennis club marketing and brand identity. It is something that leaves marks on those who see your brand online. It is not something that happens instantly, but for tennis clubs' effective marketing, a brand identity is a must.

What is brand identity? Is it your logo, fonts, color palette? Yes, it is that and much more - it is how your brand looks, feels, and speaks to people, how you communicate with your desired audience and how you differentiate yourself from your competition. Marty Neumeier, a branding guru defines brand identity as “the outward expression of a brand, including its trademark, name, communications, and visual appearance.”

• Logo
• Colors
• Typography/fonts
• How you use photography, icons, and illustrations
• Data visualization
• Video style
• Web design

All of those elements make your tennis program's brand identity and must be consistent across all marketing channels.

Copywriting that sells

Not all of your target audience knows you personally or sees you. Therefore, your tennis club's online front is how people who have not met you yet get to know you, your tennis experience, your teaching style, and your business values.

Based on that information, they decide whether or not to start taking lessons with you or at your tennis club. No matter what your product or service is (e.g. lessons package, clinic, tennis event, or pro shop racquet sale), you should be able to communicate the value of what you are offering effectively if you wish to make any sales happen. 

A strong brand identity with an effective copywriter can make your tennis club marketing effective and trigger emotions and convert your website or social media visitors into customers.

Create your online presence

Covid-19 revealed the importance of online business. Even as a tennis club, bringing your business online can effectively improve its growth. The best part it is easy once you have defined your purpose and making the right efforts to achieve them.

To get started, you will need:

• A dynamic and functional website
• Web pages that are optimized to bring traffic to your website
• Content that informs and converts visitors into clients

By showing up on google, you get a chance to get ranked high on search results. For example, when a user searches for "tennis lessons for children" online, your tennis club would ideally appear in the top 3-4 main results.

Finding the right marketing channels

There are many options to market your tennis business:

• Social media marketing
• Email marketing
• Video marketing
• Business blogging
• Influencer marketing

So which one is best for your tennis club business? 

The answer is "it depends". It is not "one-size-fits-all" type of approach. 

There are several things you can do to understand which marketing medium is effective to target your specific target audience. For example, take a look at your competitors and what they do. Think carefully of who your customer is (aka. your marketing persona or your target audience) - who are they, what do they like to do, and where do they like to hang out.

After that, identify a couple of channels that are effective for your particular target audience (maybe that is social media for you - e.g. Facebook or YouTube, or maybe it is blogging). Then think about whether you are capable of maintaining posting on those channels consistently. We are all up for a challenge and professional growth, but I would not recommend starting a blog if you hate writing. Make a video channel with tennis tips instead or invest some money into online ads. 

However, if you are confident that blogging is the best marketing platform for your business and you do not like blogging, there are always workarounds - hire a freelancer to blog for you or see if any of your colleagues would be up for a challenge. 

You can also try reaching directly to your targeted audience - you can do it with email marketing, direct mail, or presenting at local school events.

Email marketing is among the best and most suitable marketing mediums, especially to reach directly to clients. However, remember that when it comes to email marketing, it is not just sending emails or letters that build targeted user databases. You need to craft an email content and then test it by altering slightly to find what works best for you. 

You have to prepare a consistent action plan

Many tennis clubs and tennis managers are rigid to change, even when this change can unlock a lot more opportunities. When making a change to your marketing plan, the key is not only preparing a plan of action but also following it constantly. If you blog or make a video channel, make sure you keep adding content for a few months before you decide its performance is not working. Some marketing channels take longer to build and become successful.  

The marketing channel you likely have not thought about... 

Influencer marketing can create business opportunities and grow your tennis clubs online. With influencer marketing, you can get:

• More brand awareness
• Precise targeting
• High audience engagement
• Enhance your trust and credibility
• Search engine ranking

What is an influencer? Influencers are opinion leaders with a social media or email following base who appear as experts or trustworthy sources of information for a particular topic or industry. Whether you plan to become one or team up and build a partnership with that type of person, there is a big opportunity for promoting your tennis business online with influencer marketing.  

Wrapping up

Effective tennis club marketing can help your business sales grow in 2021. It is the year of online businesses, so get your tennis club to show up online. Additionally, build up your brand identity, and do not hesitate to reach out to an expert to help with your marketing strategy. 

What have you been doing during the pandemic to improve your tennis club marketing and boost sales? Let us know below!